Background

The event was headlined by a Lightweight title eliminator fight between former UFC champion Benson Henderson and former Bellatorfeatherweight champion Patricio Freire. Henderson, after being defeated in his April debut against welterweight champion Andrey Koreshkov, returned to the division where he twice defeated Frankie Edgar. He has also beaten former UFC title challengers Nate Diazand Donald Cerrone. Freire sought to parlay the victory to a title shot against lightweight champion Michael Chandler, who claimed the belt by knocking out Freire’s brother, Patricky, on June 24.

Due to pressure from fans the feature prelim was moved back to being the co-main even on the card featuring NCAA Division I National Champion in Wrestling Bubba Jenkins versus Georgi Karakhanyan. The last time these two met Karakhanyan defeated Jenkins by guillotine choke in the first round.

Additionally, four-time NCAA Division II Champion wrestler Joey Davis will made his professional MMA debut on this card; as an amateur he had a record of 5-0. Davis recently graduated from Notre Dame College, where he accumulated an undefeated 131-0 record over the course of four seasons during his collegiate wrestling career. He is the only Division II wrestler in NCAA history to win four consecutive national titles, and is one of three wrestlers ever to complete a four-year college career with an undefeated record.

Kevin Ferguson Jr., the eldest son of Kimbo Slice, was scheduled to make his Bellator debut on this card against Jonathan Tomasian. However, the bout was cancelled on August 21 due to an injury received by Ferguson.

Results